tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60080467847869424772024-03-13T22:07:32.366+00:00Your MinstrelMemories to Cherish !Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-60721025714914238332024-01-08T16:05:00.000+00:002024-01-08T16:05:37.197+00:00GASPARD’s MUSINGSThough I was in Rwanda only for 2 ½ days in the latter part of 2011, the genocide of 1994 came up in our conversations ever so often. Several parts of the country were affected by the horrendous conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis that claimed thousands of lives in a period of 100 days. The rivalry and tension between the two tribes goes back to several decades and conflicts Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-74979609033036867732019-11-06T01:23:00.000+00:002019-11-06T01:25:41.780+00:00STANDING UP AND SPEAKING OUT
“I was
married at the age of 5. I didn’t know what it meant at that time. When I grew
up and realised what it meant, I decided to walk out of my marriage. Why should
I be married to a man several years older than me, against my wishes, at a time
when I didn’t realise what was happening? And so, a few years later when I had
the courage to take my own decision, I
decided to walk out of Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-70355515197984345442016-04-19T08:52:00.002+01:002016-04-19T08:52:19.161+01:00
BEGINNING OF THE END ?
In September 2015, world leaders
adopted the Sustainable Development Goals. Goal 5 focusses on Gender Equality.
One of its targets is about ending all forms of violence against women and
girls in public and private spheres. This is something that is immensely
laudable yet hugely challenging to achieve. Achievement of this goal requires a
fundamental rethink on the Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-7574650769901794712016-04-09T10:25:00.001+01:002016-04-09T10:25:05.295+01:00
A NEW HORIZON
There is a perceptible sense of excitement in the air with
elections around the corner, tinged with optimism and aspiration for the
future. These elections are expected to be different with a more visible
presence of Aung San Sui Kyi’s NLD party and her supporters, often seen
wearning T-shirts with the red flag with a star and peacock in yellow or
passing through open vans Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-68470917709517446932015-08-31T19:55:00.002+01:002015-08-31T20:04:48.754+01:00
THE NEXT STATION IS OVAL - Concluding Part
And of course, my stint with Wateraid was made all the more special with the fantastic colleagues I got to work with. In my role, I had the opportunity to work with colleagues across all our country programmes and Wateraid members. My travels meant that I could regularly meet them from time to time. And each time I met them or spent time with them, IGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-26470357592096189232015-08-16T13:52:00.003+01:002015-08-16T13:52:51.460+01:00
THE NEXT STATION IS OVAL - Part 2
But the most inspiring and enriching part of my life at WaterAid was the opportunity to meet with communities living in remote areas of their respective countries or in highly uninhabitable urban settlements. What was most inspiring about meeting them was how they saw hope for a better life, just because of access to water, sanitation and hygiene.
Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-79842167147948442722015-08-13T20:01:00.000+01:002015-08-13T20:03:28.539+01:00
THE NEXT STATION IS OVAL - Part 1
'The next station is Oval' - the announcement on the tube was the one that I was used to for several years now. And as was my habit, I opened my bag to put back my copy of The Economist. Nothing unusual about that - but that, it was rather unusual. Though I had my copy of The Economist and even as I read articles and flipped the pages, my mind was elsewhere.Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-20954269094084812032015-06-23T17:24:00.004+01:002015-06-23T17:24:39.744+01:00
A
PERILOUS EXISTENCE
The idea of flying by a sea
plane was very exciting. I had never been on one before. Among the
pre-requisites for the flight was advance information on our body weight.
‘Eighty five’, I said very reluctantly. Any discussion on weight does not make
for pleasant recollections, at least for me and about myself !
It was early morning in July
2013. A team of four which Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-30838594459619527052015-03-30T13:41:00.002+01:002015-03-30T13:41:38.185+01:00
ASPIRATIONS
“We want to develop this
into a bustling town – and that is why, we have constructed the district
offices a little away from where this town is actually located”, said Moses, a
senior district official of Napak district. He was very sincere, and there was
ambition in what he said. Even if it was difficult to fully be convinced about
it – a glance out of the several windows in hisGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-71970033091176181912015-01-05T12:55:00.001+00:002015-01-05T12:55:08.595+00:00
A
TRUE INSPIRATION
With a charming smile, she
made her way into one of the large meeting rooms in this imposing hotel in
Kathmandu. She was one of the thousands of delegates for the South Asian
Conference on Sanitation (SACOSAN) being organised by the governments of South Asian
countries. In 2013, it was the turn of Nepal to play the host. And the grand
hotel in Kathmandu seemed to be just Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-54472931622305660462014-12-30T14:21:00.002+00:002014-12-30T14:21:40.901+00:00
WHITHER
THY RELIGION
People in most parts of
Africa (as is the case in most parts of Asia too – bar a couple of countries I
think) tend to be very religious. Malawi is no different. A largely Christian population, people tend to
be very devout. Sundays are normally reserved for attending church and various
social activities related to the church and the local community.
It was thus Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-39318721055224644152014-01-08T17:28:00.001+00:002014-12-31T10:49:26.565+00:00
A REASON FOR HOPE
The
drive to Alere village in Kuji sub-county of Amuria district was a pleasant
one. Drives through the countryside are often pleasing for the eye. The area
had received some good rainfall in the preceding weeks and the lush greenery
was evidence of that. But the beauty of the terrain hid an acute form of
harshness that became evident once we started speaking to some of theGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-56448950655313429962014-01-03T11:32:00.004+00:002014-01-03T11:32:55.470+00:00
A LIBERATING EXPERIENCE !
The
November morning air was crisp and dry. It was well past 10 a.m. and the roads
of Ouagadougou, the capital of the West African country of Burkina Faso were
busy. A recent economic spurt and the relocation of several international
operations from neighbouring country Cote d’ Ivoire because of conflict there
had meant that Ouaga was much more happening city – it Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-9560612859757710412014-01-02T14:53:00.000+00:002014-01-02T14:55:08.819+00:00
WHERE ARE THEY ?
It was a hot May afternoon
in 2013. Returning to Hyderabad after several years, I could sense how this
city had grown immensely, just going by the heavy traffic and the general buzz
around the city – a city that had prospered in the modern era thanks to the IT
boom. Cyberabad was an alternate name to the city.
But the main arterial roads
do not tell the full story – and Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-21029533001194066682012-11-17T19:08:00.004+00:002012-11-17T19:15:48.343+00:00
AN
ISLAND OF PROMISE
Normally, I prefer an aisle
seat on a plane. I had one on the Silk Air flight from Singapore to Dili, the
capital of Timor Leste. As the pilot announced that we would be soon landing in
Dili, I shifted to the vacant window seat next to me. And I am glad I did. It
was a spectacular landing ! The sea had azure blue and deep green shades, with
the waves dashing against the Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-63756521858797910462012-10-28T03:38:00.005+00:002012-10-28T03:38:46.233+00:00
DOLLY’S
DREAMS
Winding our way through the
tree lined avenues of Gulshan, we got out into the main thoroughfares of Dhaka
the teaming mega-city capital of Bangladesh with a population of about 12
million people. We soon realized the bubble that Gulshan was – though not
entirely unaware of it, it still is an overwhelming sense when you step out to
other parts of Dhaka. To say that there was Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-25394529855393945202012-10-23T20:29:00.002+01:002012-10-23T20:29:30.568+01:00
TOWARDS
A BETTER LIFE
A swank new airport greeted
us as we landed in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. I remember this being
constructed the last time I was here, a couple of years ago. Built with Chinese
investment, it was a statement of Mozambique’s economic growth, estimated at
around 7%, fuelled by coal and natural gas discoveries. That
said, this beautiful country in southern Africa isGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-56520690504040174602012-09-27T10:29:00.000+01:002012-09-27T10:29:24.830+01:00
WHAT
IS MORE PRECIOUS ?
The morning air in Addis
Ababa was crisp and nippy. It was the tail end of the wet season and the area
immediately surrounding the smart airport was lush green. But as one drove into
the city, the changes were quite apparent. For one, there was construction
going on everywhere. More and more buildings, more roads, more flyovers. Addis
seems to be in state of frenzied Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-41211772313572400752012-06-06T12:39:00.000+01:002012-06-06T12:44:32.640+01:00
THE BASTI TRANSFORMS !
It was not yet summer. Towards the end of March (this is 2012), it is still supposed to be spring time. But by the time we got to the Bajrangnagar community in Indore, it was quite warm and the hall which was the venue of our meeting with the community was packed, mostly by women. We had come to meet this community as part of the WaterAid team, where our partner NGO, BGMSGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-83682055666568919312012-01-04T20:32:00.001+00:002012-01-04T20:34:45.112+00:00A LIFE OF DIGNITYIt was June 2007. I was on my first visit to Mali and I was with Barbara Frost, our Chief Executive and Idrissa Doucoure, Head of West Africa. It was summer and the temperature was well above 35 degrees Celsius. Fatim, our Country Representative in Mali had arranged a visit for us to the village of Tienfala in Koulikoro region in south-western part of Mali. “Tienfala is a very Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-23568079082920238142011-11-26T17:17:00.002+00:002011-11-26T17:22:38.175+00:00REBUILDING LIVESIt was a warm August morning. The journey from Islamabad to Mardan, about 200 kms. was smooth thanks to the well constructed motorway. Traffic flow was smooth. Passing through some villages and towns, life seemed to be normal as people seemed to get along with the normal routines of life as would be expected in any part of the world. Unless one was told, one could not make out Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-69444543017773314372010-07-31T20:30:00.000+01:002010-07-31T20:32:41.119+01:00THE LOCAL PHARMACIST DOES NOT LIKE US ANYMORE !It was raining heavily. It was early August in 2006 and I was on my first visit to Nigeria. We were in the state of Bauchi . It was quite a long but comfortable drive from Abuja, the Nigerian capital. We were approaching the village of Birnin Ganye. The last stretch of our journey to the village seemed to take much longer because of the rains which Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-26902258344246201832010-03-24T21:16:00.001+00:002014-01-02T15:04:41.316+00:00
THE GOODBYE
Twenty five years ago, a quarter of a century ago, we were preparing for a new phase in our lives. We were the fourth batch of students from the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA). It had been a memorable and fun filled two years. While we learnt about becoming good managers, most of us will remember our time in IRMA even more for the bonding and the fun that we as a batch Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-57093049240317981172009-11-15T18:38:00.002+00:002009-11-15T18:42:56.020+00:00THE QUIET CURIOSITYThis was in one of the villages near Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala in late 2004. Some of us, that included some people from Andhra Pradesh working with the state government , were visiting women’s groups supported under the Government of Kerala’s highly acclaimed programme, the Kudumbashree programme. These groups had engaged in various activities for their economic developmentGirish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6008046784786942477.post-86566325458796283462009-10-26T19:23:00.003+00:002009-10-26T19:28:44.882+00:00A ROYAL ENCOUNTERThis is a slightly different post from what I have been posting earlier. While my earlier posts were about events way back in the past, mostly from rural India, this one is more contemporary !A few days ago, to my utter surprise and completely out of the blue, I received an invitation from the Buckingham Palace inviting me to a reception hosted by Queen Elizabeth and her husband,Girish Menonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08198191470897961304noreply@blogger.com2